When All Is Said And Done
by Within the Eye of the Beholder
Summary: RLHG AU Post Hogwarts.  Hermione looks back over her relationship with Remus.


This is my first HG/RL fic, I think that it is only fair that I warn you that this is a ship that I have only recently discovered and this story was not started with Remus as my male lead, but as I sat and typed I found that the words flowed for a story with Remus in a way that they did not for any other male Harry Potter character. I hope that you enjoy reading this first installment as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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Chapter 1 – A Very Good Place To Start

Looking back, it's hard to see where it started, yes he was my professor, and then during the war he was my mentor, my guide, my confidant. Even so I'm not sure I can identify one particular moment where the match was lit, where an easy friendship developed into something deeper, something even more meaningful than the seemingly simple comradeship we had entered into during the Great War.

Many people would think that there is something innately wrong with a professor and one of his former students entering into romantic liaison, it is somewhat of a taboo area, and unfortunately several of my closer friends seemed to, initially at least find our relationship to be somewhat sordid.

Although I admit that if I put myself into their shoes, I can see their point, even in the magical world our relationship crosses so many lines, he was my teacher, and I was his student. There is for all intents and purposes a twenty year age gap between us. I myself am a muggle born witch, a 'mudblood' if you will. He is… well he was a half blood wizard, which made him somewhat more culturally acceptable than I, until as a small boy he was bitten by a werewolf, I suppose these days he would be described by our prejudicial society as 'Magical Creature', this however does not do justice to the gentle, intelligent, caring man who I have come to love, first as my comrade, my friend, my lover and finally my husband.

I apologise, I am rambling somewhat, trying to explain this is difficult, especially to some who wasn't there, someone who didn't live through it, who never experienced what it is to fight for freedom, to be willing to give your last breath to ensure that the next generation don't have to grow up in fear, in fear of a despot seeking to destroy that which created him.

I suppose that I should start at the beginning, because as someone once said it is a very good place to start…

Remus John Lupin was my professor, for a few months in my third year at Hogwarts he taught Defence Against the Dark Arts. At the time he was just another teacher, admittedly he was one of the better Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers that we had, I think that even if our previous teachers for the subject hadn't tried to either kill us or dazzle us to insanity with tales of their supposedly daring deeds, he would still have ranked pretty high up the scale.

I admired him in the much the same way I admired any other teacher, at the time my teachers were like gods to me, they were far off beings, who were a means to an end, I was like a dry sponge desperate to soak up everything I could about the wondrous world that I had only discovered a little over two years previously. I would have been about thirteen or fourteen at the time, and our relationship was little more than a business transaction, he taught and I learnt. It would have stayed that way had it not been for Harry, but that is a story for another day…

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I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this story, while I would be grateful for any reviews that you might wish to post, I understand that many people prefer to lurk and I respect that choice. I would also like to thank Genoc for encouraging me to write again after a break of several years.

I hope to have a second (longer!) chapter posted by the end of next weekend… Au Revoir until next time!


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